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After figuring this out, Zhao Fusheng realized that this case had to be handled. It wasn't just for obtaining merits and unlocking the divine positions of the Investiture of the Gods; she also had to complete the Demon Suppression Division's mission to avoid being sanctioned by the ghost lackeys in the Soul-Life Register.
"Hoo—" Zhao Fusheng took a deep breath.
She knew nothing about the Demon Suppression Division and didn't understand the consequences of defying the ghost curse. But when it involved matters related to 'ghosts,' it was a matter of life and death, so she naturally had to be doubly cautious and minimize her chances of making mistakes.
The situation was very unfavorable for her. Zhao Fusheng sat for a long while, then suddenly stood up.
She looked back at the original owner's parents and said softly:
"I will first bury you, then deal with the Demon Suppression Division's case."
She didn't know if she could return safely from this trip, but sitting idly and waiting for death was not her character.
Zhao Fusheng's gaze gradually became firm. Then, she dusted off her clothes and rose to walk towards the side room where the Demon Suppression Division stored its past case files.
Fan Bisi was treacherous and cunning, his words half-truth, half-lie, but he hadn't lied about the minor matter of where the case files were kept.
Following his directions, Zhao Fusheng stepped into the side room.
After the original owner entered the Demon Suppression Division, due to her personality, she hadn't dared to wander around in the early days. Her range of activity was almost limited to the places designated by the Fan brothers.
Later, when the ghostly calamity erupted, she had no energy or inclination to investigate her surroundings, having long been scared out of her wits. Any slight disturbance could make her tremble with fear.
This was Zhao Fusheng's first time entering this room.
Her first impression was that the entire room was extremely messy.
Through the light filtering in from the skylight above the wall, she could see a large amount of splashed, dried, and hardened black marks on the surrounding wooden shelves, the floor, and the long table and stools. Based on her intuition, Zhao Fusheng guessed these were bloodstains.
She looked up at the ceiling and saw that even the roof beam, over a zhang high, was splattered with a large amount of blood.
A strand of cobweb, caked with dried flesh and blood, hung down from the eaves, already dried hard and black, like an inverted stalactite.
Perhaps an accident had occurred here that day. After the ghostly calamity began, perhaps someone from the Demon Suppression Division had been killed here by a malevolent ghost.
The people who later collected the bodies probably weren't in the mood to clean up properly, only doing a rough job. The scattered scrolls and documents, as well as some remaining bloodstains, were not cleaned up and were strewn all over the floor.
Even though there was no one else in the room besides her at this moment, the terror and horror of the Demon Suppression Division personnel who had met their end in this side room lingered through the mess left behind.
Against the wall in the room were rows of shelves. Except for a small number of empty compartments, most were filled with scrolls and documents.
In the middle was a long table, with several waisted round stools placed around it. At the very head of the long table was a high-backed square chair.
Zhao Fusheng counted the round stools; there were as many as eight.
The room was not small; besides these, many people could stand around.
From this arrangement, Zhao Fusheng could almost imagine the scene when Wan'an County's Demon Suppression Division was in its heyday, with the Commanding Officer and Envoys from the yamen gathered here, discussing cases.
Unfortunately, the glory eventually faded, and only three people were left alive in the yamen.
This extreme contrast, combined with the current ghost case scene in the side room, exuded an overwhelming sense of malignancy and eeriness.
As she pushed the door open, dust rose in the room, breaking the silence, and a musty, rotten smell assailed her nostrils.
This terrible smell and the mess in the room stirred the fear in Zhao Fusheng's heart. Goosebumps almost instantly crawled up her back, and an urge to leave this place welled up in her mind.
Since Zhao Fusheng's incident yesterday, she hadn't eaten a single grain of rice. Hunger pangs stimulated her, causing waves of dizziness.
But she had no way to retreat now. Finding clues about Beggars' Alley was her only glimmer of hope.
She shook her head, forcefully stifling the thought of escaping and hiding in her heart. Suppressing the churning in her stomach, she composed herself, first pushed open the locked window to let the air in the room circulate, gradually dissipating the suffocating smell, and then casually picked up a scroll scattered on the table and unrolled it.
The document recorded: January 4th, 231st year of the Han Dynasty, went to Yujia Village, Huarong Town, Wan'an County, and subdued a ghost in the village ancestral hall.
Afterwards, it recorded some background about Yujia Village. Most of the villagers made a living by fishing, hence the village's name.
Zhao Fusheng continued to read:
I brought three Envoys: Wang Quan, Zhou Ling, and Sun Wu. In the end, all three died successively at the hands of the malevolent ghost.
When Sun Wu died, I finally discovered the malevolent ghost's killing rule and deduced the following pattern.
The ghost is of the 'Sui' rank, using water as its medium.
Wherever there is water, the ghost's shadow will appear. Once a person sees their reflection in the water, they will be marked by the ghost and eventually have their life claimed by the malevolent ghost.
After ascertaining the ghost's method and process of killing, I risked looking at my reflection in the water, then kept my eyes covered for the entire duration. Only in this way could I escape the malevolent ghost's killing rule.
After the method was spread, all survivors followed suit, eventually leading to a situation where the ghost had 'no one to kill,' and it subsequently left Yujia Village.
...
The process in between was not written in detail, but Zhao Fusheng still held the scroll, pondering for a long time.
This case seemed to have been handled simply, and the solution was beyond Zhao Fusheng's expectations, but one could still sense the lingering relief in the few words of the person who recorded this case that day.
A random scroll she picked up recorded a case where the Demon Suppression Division sent a total of four people, and three of them died.
It was evident that even if Fan Bisi's words were half-truth, half-lie, the extreme danger of dealing with ghosts was indeed true.
"'Sui' rank..."
Fan Bisi had also mentioned the 'Sui' rank.
He said that once a ghost broke through the 'Sui' rank, it would possess the ability to create a Ghost Domain.
"I wonder if there are ranks between 'Sui' and 'Sha'—" Currently, it was certain that 'Sha' rank ghosts were more terrifying than 'Sui' rank ghosts. As for what kind of level this 'Sui' rank actually was, she had no way of knowing.
Now, Fan Bisi was bent on escaping. Before she agreed to release their soul-lives, this person could not be trusted.
She rerolled the document and placed it back on the table.
This recorded information on ghost exorcism gave her great encouragement and also opened up another line of thought for her.
In her early stages, with insufficient strength, she might not necessarily have to fight ghosts to the death.
According to the document, as long as she found the ghost's killing rules and patterns, and broke those patterns, if the ghost 'believed' it had already killed everyone, it was highly likely to leave.
"Isn't this equivalent to a method of deception?" she murmured softly, her eyes brightening.
A Ghost Domain had appeared in Beggars' Alley, and the existence of the Ghost Domain was due to the influence of a malevolent ghost. Then, after she entered, as long as she found the malevolent ghost's killing rule and temporarily 'tricked' the ghost away, the Ghost Domain would naturally disappear, and wouldn't the case be completed?
Such a thought greatly encouraged her.
She picked up another scroll and, after unrolling it, read what was written on it:
October 17th, 223rd year of the Han Dynasty, Juren Town, Wan'an County. In the town...
Ghost of 'Sui' rank. Two accompanying Envoys both died.
Their names were noted afterwards.
...
Afterwards, she read several more case scrolls and found that most of these case-handling methods focused on finding the rules and tricking the ghosts away, rarely using forceful means to exorcise them. At the same time, Zhao Fusheng noticed another commonality among these scrolls: all the ghosts were of the 'Sui' rank.
From this point, she roughly deduced that if ghosts also had ranks, then the 'Sui' rank was probably the lowest rank for ghosts that had already formed.
But even so, they were still very terrifying.
She realized that in every scroll, someone died. At most, all accompanying Envoys died; at least, one person. This death rate was frighteningly high, making Zhao Fusheng tremble with fear.
This time, when she went to Beggars' Alley, given Fan Bisi's current attitude, this person would probably not accompany her. And with mutual distrust between them, she did not trust the Fan brothers either.
In other words, she was very likely to go alone to resolve this matter. And based on the death rate from the past case files of the Demon Suppression Division she had read—her chance of death was one hundred percent.
"..."
Zhao Fusheng fell into deep thought.